London-listed Global Petroleum is looking to reduce its work obligations on deepwater territory offshore Namibia after disappointing drilling on nearby acreage.

Global is in talks with Namibian authorities “with a view to seeing if a mutually acceptable work program on the company’s blocks can be achieved”. Those talks are focused on securing a license extension with a reduced work program for its two Namibian offshore blocks, 1910B and 2010A for which a license was issued in December 2010, covering 11,730 sq km (4,527 sq miles) in water depths ranging from 1,300-3,000 m (4,264-9,840 ft).

“These discussions are being held in the context of the wider operational environment, particularly the largely disappointing drilling results in the country, most recently and notably the Welwitschia-1A well drilled immediately adjacent to the company’s acreage,” Global reported, continuing: “This context has not assisted progress of the company’s ongoing farm out process which is being managed by FirstEnergy Capital,” the explorer says in its latest quarterly update.

Global holds 85% in Petroleum Exploration License 29 which covers its two blocks. Efforts to farm out the acreage were not helped by the disappointing outcome on the Welwitschia 1A well, which was plugged and abandoned after being drilled to total depth of 2,454m (2,049 ft) in Block 2011A during the last quarter, adjacent to Block 2010A, located in the Walvis Basin.

Global said the geology of its acreage was unaffected by the outcome of the Welwitschia well – since it has a different setting because the prospectivity in its acreage is mapped in older, deeper sediments not reached with the Welwitschia-1A well – and added that the potential of deeper traps and reservoirs within its acreage remains untested.

“In addition, the company’s technical team believes that shallower reservoir potential still remains in its blocks, as Global’s interpretation is that the high quality Maastrichtian and Campanian reservoirs in its blocks were deposited in a sandstone reservoir fairway which skirted and bypassed the old highs such as the one drilled by Welwitschia-1A,” it stated.

Offshore